


i think you're my best friend

by badskeletonpuns



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, hurt comfort, minffel, mostly comfort, the most expressive hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-23 13:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7464450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badskeletonpuns/pseuds/badskeletonpuns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From a prompt meme on tumblr - Doug and Renée with "You're supposed to talk me out of this." Mostly gen, lowkey minffel, set in that period of time when they were trying to run the Hephaestus alone circa Kumbaya Approach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i think you're my best friend

It's not like Eiffel _watches_ Minkowski, it’s just-

When you’re awake around someone for longer than a regular day - not that the day/night distinction actually means anything in space - you notice things about them. 

He notices things about her. It starts small. 

The way she moves. 

Minkowski moves precisely and forcefully, like a metronome keeping the beat. She falls out of rhythm after Christmas, tripping up and falling out of place, trying to keep pace with the broken machinery and strange stars surrounding her. 

The way she breathes. 

She doesn’t want Eiffel to notice, but he does anyway. When she sleeps, her breathing is labored and hitching, and he’s not sure whether she’s injured or having nightmares. He’s not sure which is worse. After all, he has had nightmares worse than physical injuries. 

The way she acts (the way she acts around _you,_ something whispers to Eiffel). 

__It was little things, small touches, just a brush of their hands or patting his head or clapping him on the shoulder. It shifts, somehow, after Christmas. She lets their hands touch longer, intertwining their fingers and taking a deep breath, calming herself before moving on to the next item on the to-do list. She pulls him into a hug one night, after a particularly dangerous scare, and he holds her close and pretends that they aren’t both trying very hard not to cry on each other._ _

__He cracks jokes, pulls her pigtails, tries to pretend everything is still the way it was before. But you can’t pretend your best friend back to life, no matter how many conversations you have with blank camera lenses. You can’t forgive a betrayal when you are still reeling from its effects, spinning out of control like a meteor hurling itself into the void of space._ _

__The two of them manage. Minkowski and Eiffel do their best to hold the space station and each other together. Neither of them could say which job is more difficult, in the end._ _

__Some nights are better than others. Some nights they stay up, waiting for a system to fail and swapping jokes and half-remembered songs from earth. Some nights he can even make her laugh again. When her eyes crinkle and her face lifts, Eiffel sees a Renée Minkowski he’s never met before, a Renée Minkowski who probably danced around her cool apartment singing show-tunes and eating ice cream right out of the container._ _

__A Renée Minkowski who was happy._ _

__A Renée Minkowski would have never known Doug Eiffel even existed._ _

__Guilt strikes him when he realizes he doesn’t regret what’s happened to him, to her - as long as it meant he could hear her laugh right now, see her smile at him when an alarm hasn’t gone off for a good forty minutes and they can relax for a while._ _

__Some nights, of course, are awful. It feels like there are more awful nights than good ones, more nights when he wakes coughing up something wet and knows Hilbert’s betrayal hasn’t run its course yet, more nights when he hears Minkowski hoarsely scream and when he gets to wherever she fell asleep that night she’s gasping and clutching at her throat, unable to breath even in the oxygenated room. By the time he shakes her awake she’s blue and her skin is clammy, and she can’t stop shaking for what feels like hours._ _

__After that they sleep in the same room. It’s safer, in some ways._ _

__When Eiffel wakes to see Minkowski floating near the wall, with her arms wrapped around herself and staring down at the floor (Hilbert pops into his head unbidden, telling him that there is no up or down in space), he knows that it’s dangerous in other ways._ _

__Professional relationships tend to fall apart when it’s just you and your boss alone in space for days on end, but there are still boundaries. Still lines._ _

__When he unclips himself from his bed and floats over to her late in the artificial Hephaestus night, he knows he’s walking one of those lines._ _

__“You okay, Commander?” he asks, voice hoarse with sleep._ _

__“I can’t stop thinking about him,” she whispers, barely audible. Something tells Eiffel that she’s not talking about Hilbert._ _

__He sees the line in front of him like a physical mark, and puts a hand on her shoulder. He’s probably gentler with her than he is with the expensive comms equipment. (She's worth more to him, and he knows it.)_ _

__“Can’t sleep either?” he says instead of asking who Minkowski’s ‘he’ is. They both have their secrets._ _

__She nods, once, sharply, and puts one of her hands on his. Both of their hands rest on her shoulder, now. Slowly, Eiffel pulls her around until Minkowski has turned to face him._ _

__There is silence in the bunk room between them. Even their combined breathing seems hushed by the stale, recycled air._ _

__He looks at his bunk, and then at her. He knows Minkowski sees him do it, knows she knows what he wants to ask her but is too afraid to say aloud._ _

__"You’re supposed to talk me out of this,” he says, staring into her eyes._ _

__Minkowski shrugs. “Maybe I’m done talking myself out of things,” she tells him. “Maybe I just want to do something, just once, without worrying about the consequences.”_ _

__Eiffel grins a little, he can’t help it. “Commander Minkowski, not thinking about the consequences of her actions? I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but I want to know so I can do it again.”_ _

__“Shut up, Eiffel,” she orders, and tugs him towards his bunk._ _

__They don’t do anything that night except sleep, but it’s the best sleep Eiffel has had in a long, long time._ _

**Author's Note:**

> hope y'all liked it! I had a lot of fun writing this, and yes the title is a lyric from a fallout boy song. a great minffel song, btw. leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed! :D


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